Could Earth Microbes Survive in a Martian Lake?
Mars is a very different world from ours. While evidence continues to mount that early Mars had lots of water, and possibly even oceans on its surface, it's been dry for at least a billion years.As the planet transitioned to a cold, arid world, chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide and perchlorate accumulated on its surface and subsurface. If any life exists on Mars today, it would have had to adapt to the presence of these biology-unfriendly compounds.